Developing a Taiwan library
history digital library with reader
knowledge archiving and sharing
mechanisms based on the DSpace
platform
Chih-Ming Chen and Yong-Ting Chen
Graduate Institute of Library, Information and Archival Studies,
National Chengchi University, Wenshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan
Chin-Ming Hong
Department of Applied Electronics Technology,
National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
Chin-Wen Liao
Department of Industrial Education and Technology,
National Changhua University of Education, Changhua City, Taiwan, and
Chia-Meng Huang
ADLINK Technology Inc., Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract

Purpose – This work seeks to present a reading annotation and knowledge sharing tool, which can
annotate a web page with HTML format archived by the Taiwan libraries’ history digital library
based on Web 2.0 technologies
Design/methodology/appro ach – This work adopted DSpace, an open-source institutional
repository system, to implement a Taiwan Digital Library History Library with the reading
annotation tool for knowledge archiving and sharing services. A quasi-experimental design method
was employed to randomly assign participants to an experimental group and control group to evaluate
differences in the reading performance of learners who used the proposed annotation system. A
statistical analysis scheme was employed to evaluate differences in learning performance of learners
while reading and learning with the proposed annotation tool.
Findings – The paper finds that annotated digital material provides useful knowledge to readers. The
values to those annotating and subsequent readers are the acquisition of in-depth knowledge and efficient
reading. Additionally, the effect on digital libraries is that digital library content grows dynamically as
readers contribute knowledge. More importantly, annotated information from different readers has very
high potential for the discovery of value-added knowledge utilizing data mining techniques.
Originality/value – Collecting user-generated content is a novel research issue in the library sciences
field, and few studies have developed useful tools that allow readers to actively contribute their
knowledge to digital libraries. This work shows how to implement such digital library systems and how
the annotation tool benefits the growth of digital archives and promotes learning performance.
Keywords Digital libraries, Annotation, DSpace, Knowledge archiving, Knowledge sharing,
Knowledge management, Taiwan
Paper type Technical paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
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30,3
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Received May 2010
Revised September 2010
Accepted September 2010
The Electronic Library
Vol. 30 No. 3, 2012
pp. 426-442
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640471211241681

1. Introduction

Libraries are important institutions that preserve human culture. Beginning in the
1990s, the Internet has contributed markedly to the development of digital libraries
(DLs). Some predict that DLs will be the predominant libraries in the future. Library
and education professionals have recently become actively involved in DL research
and development. Many DL projects (e.g. American Memory of the Library of
Congress (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html) and the Digital Archives
Project of National Taiwan University (www.darc.ntu.edu.tw/)) focused on
preserving human cultural heritage, historical relics, and institutional productions.
However, few DL projects have focused on preserving library history. Taiwan’s
library history can be divided into the following four periods: the Japanese
occupation period (1895-1945); the reconstruction period (1945-1952); the growth
period (1953-1976), and the rapid growth period (1977-present). Many historical
events are valuable and should be collected in a DL to support teaching and
academic research in the library and information field. This work developed a DL
for Taiwan libraries’ history to preserve the developmental history of Taiwan’s
libraries by modifying the open-source DSpace platform.

2. Background

Digital libraries are focused on creating, organizing, and managing multimedia digital
content and collections, and providing search, retrieval, and other information services
over computer networks. Currently, some open-source software packages (Goh et al.,
2006; Jody, 2007), such as Eprints, Fedora, Greenstone, GERN CDSware, and DSpace,
are available to organizations and individuals to create DLs. Open-source DLs are
increasingly considered a beneficial alternative to commercial DL systems due to user
dissatisfaction with the functionalities of commercial DL systems and the increasing
budget cuts libraries now face. Additionally, the costs of maintenance and producing
software are also increasing dramatically. Free access and a good level of functionality
are the main reasons accounting for the usage and interest in open-source DL software.
Goh et al. (2006) developed a checklist consisting of 12 criteria for evaluating
open-source DL software. The 12 features that characterize “good” open-source DL
software are effective content management and content acquisition, the existence
metadata, search support, adequate access control and privacy, report and inquiry
capabilities, preservation of digital content, interoperability, a user-friendly interface,
standards compliance, effective automated tools, and good support and maintenance.
Although Goh et al. (2006) evaluated four open-source DL software programs –
Eprints, Fedora, Greenstone, and GERN CDSware – their study did not analyze
DSpace (www.DSpace.org). The first version of DSpace was released in November
2002, following a joint effort by developers from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Notably, DSpace has powerful functionalities that are characteristics of a good DL, as
identified by Goh et al. (2006) in their study of archiving, retrieval, and management of
digital assets. DSpace is currently used as a basis for institutional repositories (Tansley
et al., 2003).
Although DSpace has sufficient functionalities for archiving, searching, and
managing digital content, the predefined metadata schema needs to be revised to
archive digital targets, such as library history in Taiwan. Additionally, the user
Developing a
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interface in DSpace for browsing digital content is very primitive and clearly cannot
satisfy user needs. More importantly, the original DSpace system lacks an interface for
exhibiting various digital objects, such as images, video, audio, and animation.
Moreover, collecting content for DLs is the most important and difficult step in
developing rich digital content. Recently, Web 2.0 technologies have enable the
contribution of user-generated content to DLs and developing new applications with
Web 2.0 technologies in a library setting is becoming an important research issue.
Curran et al. (2007) noted that user-generated content, as opposed to content posted
solely by site author(s), and treating users as co-developers of a site are features of Web
2.0 websites. Wikipedia is the most well-known site for user-generated content.
Wikipedia, the largest multilingual free encyclopedia on the Internet, allows any user
to add content, and all content can be edited by any other user. The principles of Web
2.0 that are applicable to DLs are interactivity and the possibility for users to
contribute content. Many studies have indicated that users can create additional
information to digitalized objects in DLs. In developing Web 2.0 technologies to DLs,
the Oregon State University libraries integrated Reference Desk Manager (RDM) with a
Wiki to enhance their reference services (Frumkin, 2005). Based on a literature survey,
Web 2.0 services that help users create strong relationships between users and a
library are urgently needed.
At present, Wiki, blogs, social tagging, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), social
networks, and annotations are the main Web 2.0 technologies that have high
potential for application to DLs. In particular, few studies have applied annotation
technology to print libraries or DLs. Readers typically annotate printed books as a
routine part of their engagement with materials. Marshall (1997) proved that
annotations in books are useful to subsequent readers. Traditionally, annotating
printed books by pen is the most common method of recording book knowledge, but
is disadvantageous to knowledge storage in computers, knowledge dissemination,
and knowledge sharing via the Internet. In contrast, annotating digital documents
via an annotation tool can overcome these shortcomings. Petri et al. (2005)
categorized annotation systems as document-centered and discussion-centered
systems. Discussion-centered systems provide tools for browsing and annotating
discussions, while document-centered systems allow learners to browse and
annotate web-based documents. Frumkin (2005) indicated that if users could leave
comments or annotations on a finding aid – providing additional information
related to materials – this practice would open the door to sharing research
experience, facilitate collaborative research, and make it easy for future researchers
to find materials they need in a particular collection. Additionally, many studies
(Ovsiannikov et al., 1999; Petri et al., 2005; Rau et al., 2004; Hwang et al., 2007)
demonstrated that applying annotation tools to aid learning promotes learning
performance. Constructing rich digital content and users leaving knowledge in DLs
via annotations are important research issues.
This work presents a novel Web 2.0-based reader knowledge archiving and sharing
tool. By using this tool, readers can conveniently add annotations to archived digital
materials in Taiwan library history DL (http://tlh.lias.nccu.edu.tw). The functionalities
of the proposed annotation tool allow readers to add explanations, synonyms,
comments, and hyperlinks for marked target areas, and underline paragraphs as
important sections as well as rate annotations from other users. With the proposed
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annotation tool, annotations for archived digital material can be accumulated
continuously by readers annotating the material. A digital material archive with rich
annotation information can increase the reading comprehension of first-time readers as
well as promote deep reading for readers who have read the material. Moreover,
annotation information also promotes reading efficiency because some additional
comments attached to the digital material provide meaningful and interpretive
information that can shorten reading comprehension time. In conclusion, this work
explores the effects of cooperative annotation – its value to annotators and subsequent
readers – and the impact of this practice has on the Taiwan library history DL.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The development of a DL that
preserves Taiwan library history using the open-source DSpace platform is presented
in section 3. The proposed Taiwan library history DL with the annotation tool for
reader knowledge archiving and sharing is described in section 4. Section 5 assesses
the effect of this proposed tool on reader performance. Finally, conclusions and
directions for future work are given in section 6.

3. Developing a DL for Taiwan’s library history using the DSpace platform

Based on these shortcomings of DSpace system mentioned in section 2, this work
modified and enhanced the functionalities of the original DSpace system to develop a
Taiwan library history DL. The modifications of functionalities are described as
follows:
(1) Modifying the predefined metadata schema. DSpace predefines Dublin Core as
metadata schema for describing a digital object. Many institutional repositories
employ Dublin Core directly as a metadata schema to archive targeted digital
content. However, it is insufficient for developing a Taiwan library history DL
because this DL must archive complex digital objects, including library
personnel, library architecture, library information, educational content, library
timelines, and library archives. Figure 1 shows a diagram of the designed
metadata structure for archiving Taiwan library history. Basically, DSpace can
define custom metadata schema for a new item by modifying the metadata form
definition. The detailed modification processes are explained in the technical
document entitled Custom Metadata-entry Pages for Submission (http://scm.
DSpace.org/svn/repo/sandbox/DSpace-dao-prototype/DSpace/docs/submission.
html#metadataEntry). Figure 2 shows a modified XML file and the
corresponding metadata submission entry for library personnel. Currently,
six metadata schemas are designed for the Taiwan Library history DL.
(2) Modifying the language interface. DSpace predefines English as the main
language for DLs, and also provides a language modification interface that
supports non-English users. The detailed modification processes are explained
in DSpace 1.4.1 Beta 1 System Documentation (https://wiki.duraspace.org/
download/attachments/19006155/DSpaceStandard141beta1.pdf?version ¼ 1&
modificationDate ¼ 1283190822509). Figure 3 shows the developed language
transformation program for transforming Chinese words with the Big 5 code
into Unicode. For example, the Chinese term
is
transformed into d\u53f0\u7063\u767e\u5e74\u5716\u66f8\u9928\u53f2c by this
program.
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(3) Modifying the user interface. The original DSpace user interface is not easy to
use. Fortunately, DSpace also provides a modification mechanism that permits
improvements to the user interface. The detailed modification processes are also
explained in DSpace 1.4.1 Beta 1 System Documentation. To modify the DSpace
user interface, with the exception of database operation, one must be familiar
with HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, JavaServer Pages ( JSP),
and JAVA programming languages. Figure 4 shows the modified DSpace user
interface for the Taiwan library history DL. The modified DSpace user interface
Figure 1.
The diagram of metadata
structure for archiving
Taiwan libraries’ history
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Figure 2.
Modifying XML file for
setting a corresponding
metadata submission
entry for library personnel
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Figure 3.
Language transformation
program for transferring
Chinese to Unicode
Figure 4.
The modified DSpace user
interface
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has six parts – a header, a location bar, a navigation bar, content, a sidebar, and
a footer.
Next, the function of each display area in the DSpace user interface is
explained as follows:
.
Header area. The header area displays the homepage logo. In addition to
displaying the homepage logo, this area also shows the final date that
uploads digital object, and the total number of digital items archived in the
Taiwan library history DL.
.
Location bar. The location bar can display the complete hierarchical layer
names for users browsing from the homepage to their current browsing
location. The bar also provides corresponding hyperlinks, such that users
can conveniently jump to any hierarchical layer they have surfed. Another
important function stops users from losing information in the hyperspace of
the Taiwan library history DL.
.
Navigation bar. The navigation bar allows users to click target items rapidly
while browsing. The bar comprises user and administrator interfaces.
.
Content area. The content area is the main area displaying digital items on
which a user clicks. This area is controlled by JSP markup language.
.
Side bar. Compared with the navigation bar, the side bar can be considered
the second navigation bar, which can display some assistive information
such as a website map, RSS services, and website instructions.
.
Footer area. The footer area displays such information as contact and
copyright information.
(4) Designing an interface for exhibiting various digital objects. In the original
DSpace system, if a user wants browse an archived digital object, then the file of
that digital object must be downloaded to the user’s computer from the DSpace
system. In other words, DSpace does not have an interface for displaying
various digital objects, such that opening a digital object for viewing must
utilize the software installed on a user’s computer. To develop an excellent
digital library, an exhibition interface is needed to present various digital
objects. Particularly, the Taiwan library history DL needs a powerful
presentation interface with such functionalities as enlarging, shrinking, and
dragging an image because the library contains many rare photos, important
archives, and old newspapers associated with library architecture, library
personnel, library education, and library organization. To solve this problem,
this work integrated image browser Zoomifyer EZ (www.zoomify.com/express.
htm), which is an open-source software program that uses Flash technology for
exhibiting images on Internet browsers with the DSpace system. Figures 5 and
6 show the user interface developed using Zoomifyer EZ software exhibiting the
library building at National Taiwan University and a newspaper archived in
the library at National Chengchi University, respectively.
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Figure 5.
Zoomifyer EZ interface for
exhibiting the building of
National Taiwan
University Library
Figure 6.
Zoomifyer EZ interface for
exhibiting old newspaper
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4. Taiwan library history digital library with the annotation tool for
archiving and sharing reader knowledge

4.1 System architecture

Figure 7 presents the system architecture of the proposed annotation tool in the Taiwan
library history DL for archiving and sharing reader knowledge. The proposed DL with
the user annotation tool consists of the Taiwan library history DL, the annotation
module, an annotation interface, and two databases. The DL provides materials readers
browse, search, read, and annotate. The annotation service module integrates original
material archived in the DL with annotations from readers to form new DL material with
additional information and/or contexts. To avoid destroying the original version of
archived materials, the annotation service module uses an independent annotation
database, which differs from the DL database, to store annotated information and
contexts from readers. Moreover, the annotation interface provides several powerful
annotation functionalities, such as annotating key paragraphs in a text via underlining,
explaining unknown terms, providing comments on marked words or sentences, and
assigning hyperlinks to marked words or sentences, to assist readers annotating an
original archived material in the Taiwan library history DL. The annotation interface
also has a knowledge-sharing interface that facilitates knowledge exchange among
readers who read annotated materials in the DL.

4.2 System operation procedure

Based on the system architecture, the system operating procedure is described and
summarized as follows.
A user requests a webpage archived in the Taiwan library history DL for reading
by assigning a URL for browser. The DL system then accesses the webpage that the
user requested from the DL database.
The DL system shows the original webpage in HTML for reader annotation. The
DL system then passes the URL address given by the user to the annotation service
Figure 7.
System architecture of the
proposed annotation tool
on Taiwan library history
digital library
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module. The annotation service module accesses annotation data on the webpage from
the annotation database. The annotation service module integrates the original
webpage and annotation data for this webpage and stores it in an annotated webpage
using Java script technology. The integrated webpage with the original webpage and
annotation data is passed to the annotation interface, such that a user can read the
annotations.

4.3 The functionalities of the user annotation tool in the Taiwan library history digital
library for archiving and sharing reader knowledge

Figure 8 shows the proposed reading annotation tool in the Taiwan library history DL.
To avoid interference with usage of the DL, the annotation tool can be hidden as a
small icon located in the upper-right portion of the screen when no annotation is
needed. If a reader wants to know which words are annotated on a digital material,
they can select the “browser” menu, which highlights all words in the annotation.
Figure 9 displays the highlighted target areas with annotations. Additionally, users
must first register to become legal users via a registration wizard before using the
reading annotation tool. Once a user logs on to the annotation tool, he/she will be able
to use all annotation functionalities, including highlighting and adding comments.
That is, users can annotate digital material in the Taiwan library history DL by
highlighting and commenting on selected target areas. Figure 10 shows the menu for
selecting an annotation type to annotate a selected target area. To annotate a selected
target area, a user can select various annotation types, including explanation,
synonym, comment, hyperlink, and underline. Users can browse all annotations for
digital material on the DL. Figure 11 shows this user interface. A target area with
multiple annotations is open, allowing users to communicate asynchronously for
sharing knowledge via annotations. Therefore, each annotation can be shared by all
system users, and clicking on an annotation provides detailed information such as
annotation author, rating result, and comments.
Figure 8.
Reading annotation tool
on Taiwan library history
digital library
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Moreover, users can also edit their own annotations; that is, annotations generated by
other users cannot be edited, they can only be given a rating. Rating an annotation is
helpful in identifying high-quality annotations. The proposed annotation tool can
display annotated content with the highest ratings when a mouse stays on a selected
target area with an annotation (Figure 12). Of course, users can also click on a selected
target area with annotations when browsing annotations from all readers; Figure 13
shows this user interface. Finally, users can also provide summary comments and rate
Figure 9.
Highlight for all target
areas with annotation
Figure 10.
Selecting an annotation
type for annotating a
selected target area
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the quality level for annotated digital materials on the Taiwan library history DL;
Figure 14 shows this user interface.

5. Assessing the enhancement of reading performance

The work conducted an experiment to assess whether the Taiwan library history DL
with the proposed annotation tool is superior to the Taiwan library history DL without
the proposed annotation tool in terms user reading performance. In this experiment, 70
undergraduates studying at National Chengchi University were invited to participate.
Among the 70 undergraduates, 35 served as the control group and used the Taiwan
Figure 11.
Browsing all annotations
for a digital material on
Taiwan library history
digital library
Figure 12.
Displaying the annotated
content with highest
rating score when mouse
stays on a selected target
area with annotation
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library history DL without the proposed annotation tool; the remaining 35 students
served as the treatment group and used the DL with the proposed annotation tool. Both
groups completed a pretest and post-test for comparing differences in reading
performance before and after learning. In this experiment, a subject related to “Taiwan
library personnel” on the Taiwan library history DL was selected as the reading target.
Before learning, all participators were invited to write a report based on prior
knowledge of the selected subject. Next, the two groups began the reading activity to
understand the history of Taiwan library personnel based on the digital content
archived in the Taiwan library history DL. After learning, all participants were invited
to revise their reports finished during the pre-test as their reading outcomes. The
finished reports were evaluated by the course instructor. Table I shows descriptive
statistics of learning performance for both the control and treatment groups.
Figure 13.
Clicking a selected target
area with annotations for
viewing annotation
contents from all readers
Figure 14.
Giving summary comment
for an annotated digital
material on Taiwan
library history digital
library
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First, the independent samples t-test was applied to assess whether prior knowledge
of two participating groups for “Taiwan library personnel archived in the Taiwan
library history DL was equivalent before the experiment based on pre-test results.
Analytical results indicate that pre-test scores for these two groups did not differ
significantly (Sig. ¼ 0.2006 . 0.05). Therefore, prior knowledge of two participating
groups can be viewed as equivalent before the experiment. Next, post-tests of the two
participating groups were also analyzed using the independent samples t-test. The t-test
result (Sig. ¼ 0.0424 , 0.05) shows that the post-test scores of the treatment group were
significantly higher than those of the control group. Moreover, this study further
compared pre-test and post-test scores for each group using the paired samples t-test.
Analytical results for the control group indicate that the difference in mean pre-test and
post-test scores is 2 1.56, and the paired samples t-test result reaches the significance
level (Sig. ¼ 0.022 , 0.05). Additionally, the pre-test and post-test scores for the
treatment group were also assessed using the paired samples t-test. Analytical results
indicate that the difference mean pre-test and post-test scores is 2 2.96, and the paired
samples t-test result (Sig. ¼ 0.000 , 0.05) shows that the treatment group also achieves
significant difference. Experimental results show that both groups had improved
learning performance, but the treatment group improved more than the control group.

6. Conclusions and future work

Popular research on DLs mainly focused on organizing and accessing information, and
most ignored the importance of archiving reader knowledge. Since reader knowledge
cannot be immediately stored and efficiently managed, DLs lose a large amount of
useful reading outcomes and processes from readers who use DLs. Thus, reader
knowledge cannot be applied or efficiently shared thorough DLs or the Internet.
Therefore, this work presented a novel tool for archiving and sharing reader
knowledge that allows readers to easily annotate digital materials in HTML in the
Taiwan library history DL, thereby enabling cooperative knowledge creation.
Experimental results show that the proposed archiving and sharing tool effectively
gathers reader knowledge via user participation. Compared to the original digital
material without annotations, digital material with annotations, such as explanations,
user comments, and rich contexts associated with digital materials, is very useful to
Comparison item
Pre-test Post-test
Learning mode
Number of
learners Mean
Std.
deviation
mean
Number of
learners Mean
Std.
deviation
mean
The control group performed
the reading learning without
the support of the reading
annotation tool 35 75.57 4.31 35 77.13 4.16
The treatment group performed
the reading learning with the
support of the reading
annotation tool 35 76.41 4.86 35 79.37 5.02
Table I.
The descriptive statistics
information of reading
learning performance for
both the control and
treatment groups
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readers. The values to those annotating and subsequent readers are the acquisition of
deep knowledge and increased reading efficiency. Furthermore, the implications of the
work are that DL content grows dynamically as readers contribute knowledge, thus
assisting in the development of a reading community on DLs. A more important issue
is that annotated information from different readers has very high potential for
value-added reading knowledge utilizing data mining techniques.
Although this work has presented several implications of the proposed tool for
archiving and sharing reader knowledge in DLs, several other issues warrant further
investigation. Categorizing annotations as public and private will be a significant issue
in the future. Public annotations are for sharing knowledge, and private annotations
can preserve personal reading outcomes for knowledge management. Providing a
discussion board for comments or replies to annotations from readers can increase
interaction among readers. This would also prove helpful in creating a learning
community for a DL. Ming reading knowledge based on reader annotations with
ratings is a potentially fruitful research direction. Finally, the Taiwan library history
DL with the proposed annotation tool may benefit e-learning.

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About the authors

Chih-Ming Chen is currently an Associate Professor in the Graduate Institute of Library,
Information and Archival Studies at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. He received
BSc. and MSc. degrees from the Department of Industrial Education at National Taiwan Normal
Developing a
library history
441
University in 1992 and 1997, and received his PhD degree from the Department of Electronic
Engineering at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in 2002. His research
interests include digital libraries, e-learning, data mining, machine learning and intelligent
agents on the web. Chih-Ming Chen is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
chencm@nccu.edu.tw
Yong-Ting Chen received her BSc. degree from the Department of Information and Library
Science at Fu Jen Catholic University in 2007, and is now a Graduate Student of the Graduate
Institute of Library, Information and Archival Studies at National Chengchi University. Her
research interests include digital library and e-learning.
Chin-Ming Hong is currently a Professor in the Department of Applied Electronics
Technology at National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. His research interests
include intelligent control, fuzzy theory, and home health care.
Chin-Wen Liao is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Education
and Technology at National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan. His
research interests include power education, innovation management, industrial education,
industrial design and automatic control.
Chia-Meng Huang is currently a software engineer in ADLINK Technology Inc., Taiwan. His
research interests include embedded system and physiology signal processing.
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